BFI Film Classics Invasion of the Body Snatchers, (Paperback)

<p>With its narrative of emotionless alien duplicates replacing average folk, Don Siegel's 1956 <i>Invasion of the Body Snatchers</i> was the first post-war horror film to locate the monstrous in the everyday, thus marking it as a pivotal moment in American horror film history four years before Alfred Hitchcock's<i> Psycho</i>. Barry Keith Grant's compelling study traces Invasion's journey from 'B' movie thriller to an acknowledged classic of American cinema. Grant unpacks the film's engagement with numerous issues brewing in post-war US society, including the Cold War, McCarthyism and the changing dynamics of gender relations. </p><p>Grant provides an account of Invasion's fraught production history, the distinctive contributions of key crew members, and discusses the three remakes it has inspired. He illustrates how <i>Invasion of the Body Snatchers</i>' enduring popularity derives from its central metaphor for the monstrous, which has proven as flexible as that of the vampire and the zombie. </p><p>In his afterword to this new edition, Grant addresses contemporary anxieties around AI and human 'replacement', bringing in such recent films as <i>Companion</i> (2025), <i>The Creator</i> (2023) and <i>Ex Machina</i> (2014).</p>

• BFI Film Classics Invasion of the Body Snatchers, (Paperback)
• Author: Barry Keith Grant
• ISBN: 9781805750383
• Format: Paperback
• Publication Date: 2026-09-03
• Page Count: 112